West Asia Cup favourites Abu Dhabi Saracens will take some stopping but they need to be weary of Doha and capital city rivals Harlequins, according to Murray Strang.
Strang saw his Jebel Ali Dragons side limp to a fourth Gulf Top Six defeat in six games against Sarries on Friday night as their wretched 2014/15 season continued.
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The Dragons have dominated Gulf rugby for the past two seasons, but will be deposed of all crowns by the end of this season.
The Scotsman has been part of back-to-back treble winning campaigns in Jebel Ali during the last two seasons, but the giants of Gulf rugby have been firmly toppled this season by Quins, an increasingly maturing Saracens and another growing force in Doha.
Strang said: “I’m not sure if I’d call Sarries favourites. We played Doha last week and I was very impressed with them.
“If you ask me I really don’t like playing against Doha or Harlequins at the moment. They’re both very strong teams and maybe, I would say, play more of a 15-man game, which as a back I don’t like playing against as much.”
Sarries have been steadily improving and their dominant pack have won many plaudits. Identifying their main strength is, however, the easy part.
“With Saracens it’s all well and good predicting how they’re going to play, it’s another thing stopping it,” said the fly-half. “They have six wins from six so it would be difficult to bet against them now. But their next game is Quins and then they go to Doha.
They’ll be very interesting games and will probably be practice for the final.”
Despite his own side’s woes, Strang promised the Dragons will keep battling until the end and hope to have a say in the destination of both the GT6 and West Asia Cup. He added: “We’ll be putting bodies on the line and everything into it for the next four weeks.”
